Good morning. In today’s edition:

• ⚖️ Social media on trial
• 📺 America’s most-streamed show
• ⏳ Doomsday Clock update

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.41-minute read (908 words).

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“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”

–Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

A landmark trial kicked off in a Los Angeles courtroom this week, where for the first time a jury will hear claims that social media companies negligently created products that cause harm to children.

Catch up quick: Lawyers for the plaintiff, a 19-year-old Northern California woman identified by the initials KGM, are suing several tech giants in state court over claims that more than a decade of social media use has made KGM addicted and depressed.

• Meta and YouTube are named as defendants in the lawsuit and will face trial, with company leaders—including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—potentially testifying in the coming weeks.
• Snapchat and TikTok were also named as defendants, but both companies agreed to undisclosed pre-trial settlements before jury selection began on Tuesday.

The arguments

KGM’s lawyers are testing a novel legal theory that social media sites—or certain specific features—are defective products which encourage addictive behavior, similar to cigarettes and opioids, and thus subject to personal injury law.

• They allege that platforms deliberately engineered features that make them nearly impossible for kids to put down, like infinite scroll, auto-play videos, frequent notifications, and recommendation algorithms.
• In some cases, these features have resulted in depression, eating disorders, self-harm, and even suicide, the plaintiff’s lawyers allege.

On the flip side: The tech giants argue there’s no scientifically proven direct link between using social media and mental health problems.

• They also note the safety features for kids rolled out by platforms in recent years, like parental controls, guardrails on contacting teen accounts, and time limits.
• Additionally, social media companies have long maintained protection from legal action under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that exempts platforms from legal liability for content generated by their users.

What’s at stake? The suit is widely seen as a bellwether for thousands of similar lawsuits pending in California. A verdict in favor of KGM could require companies to pay damages or alter their platform designs, and encourage them to settle in those suits, likely for a hefty combined sum.

Looking ahead…The state-level trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. A similar (but separate) federal bellwether trial involving school districts is scheduled to begin this June.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏦 Federal Reserve votes 10-2 to hold interest rates steady for the first time since July; the move follows three straight quarter-point rate cuts.
• 💼 Amazon is cutting 16,000 jobs, adding to the ~14,000 job cuts it made in October; the company is also reportedly closing its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go physical stores.
• 🚗 Tesla reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings and revenue, though revenue fell on an annual basis in 2025 for the first time ever (-3%); the company also announced the end of production for its Model S and Model X amid sluggish demand; Tesla’s stock rose ~2% after-hours.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 Cleveland Browns hire former Ravens OC Todd Monken as the team’s new head coach; Monken will become Cleveland's 11th full-time coach since the franchise returned to the NFL in 1999, trailing only the Raiders (13).
• 📺 Bluey topped the US streaming charts in 2025 for a second straight year, with 45 billion minutes watched; it was followed by Grey’s Anatomy, Stranger Things, and NCIS.
• 🏌️ Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, announced plans to return to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf in late 2026.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🤒 South Carolina's measles outbreak is now the largest in America since the disease was considered eradicated in the US some 20+ years ago, CNN reports.
• 🤖 Astronomers develop AI system that scanned ~100 million space images for anomalies and discovered ~1,400 such objects in just 2.5 days.
• 🤔👟 Nike says its new athletic footwear can activate your brain, heighten sensory awareness, and even improve concentration by stimulating the bottom of your feet—but how legit is it? A neuroscientist weighs in on those claims.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🚨 Two Border Patrol agents who fired shots at Alex Pretti in a fatal encounter in Minneapolis last weekend have been placed on administrative leave as part of “standard protocol,” federal officials said. | House Democratic leaders are threatening to force a vote on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem if President Trump doesn’t remove her
• 🏛️ Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (R-MN) was sprayed by an unknown substance with a syringe during her monthly town hall meeting in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening; forensic investigators later determined the substance was likely apple cider vinegar.
• 🗳️ FBI agents searched the main election office in Fulton County, GA, over allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election; President Trump for years has claimed without evidence that the election was stolen from him, and tried unsuccessfully to overturn the result in court.

☝️ You’re looking at a map of how Americans’ inflation-adjusted income has changed by state over the past ~50 years. Overall, median household incomes rose by ~32% nationwide during that period, after adjusting for inflation.

🤔 Did you know? Jamaica is the only country in the world to have a flag without any trace of red, white, or blue, after Mauritania changed its flag design in 2017.

📰 Worth a read: Here’s what happens when you stop taking Ozempic and Wegovy

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Doomsday Clock ticks closer than ever to apocalypse
• The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans
• How to stop annoying spam calls

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Yesterday we covered the Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy that lays out a new vision for how America plans to protect itself, manage global threats, and redefine its role among allies in the coming years.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you support or oppose the Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy?

• Support: 44%
• Oppose: 37%
• Unsure/other: 19%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 581 votes and 74 longform responses.

What’s the largest country entirely within the Southern Hemisphere?

🎸 Trees damaged in last year’s Eaton Fire are being transformed into limited edition Fender guitars, with four to be auctioned off to help rebuild homes in the affected community.

+Note: This story previously appeared in Positive DONUT, our weekly newsletter surfacing all the good things you don't hear about in the news.

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